Abstract

In this work, we report the experimental observation of a polarization attraction process which can occur in optical fibers at telecommunication wavelengths. More precisely, we have numerically and experimentally shown that a polarization attractor, based on the injection of two counter-propagating waves around 1.55µm into a 2-m long high nonlinear fiber, can transform any input polarization state into a unique well-defined output polarization state.

Figures (4)

Simulation results: (a) Evolution of the energy ratio contained in the right circular polarization (solid line) and in the left (dashed line) circular polarization as a function of the pump/signal power for different initial signal polarizations. (b) Evolution of the signal polarization state on the Poincaré sphere for four different input signal polarization states. The counter-propagating pump wave is injected with a right circular polarization (S2=1).

(a). Experimental evolution of the energy ratio contained in the right (solid line) and in the left (dashed line) circular polarization as a function of the pump/signal power for four different initial signal polarization states. Output scrambled signal at P=1 W (b) and at P=45W (c).